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kahine

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 10, 2008
167
0
Wondered if anyone had heard or read anything else about the mac version of the 4870 release ?


Just curious as remember reading back in late Aug/early Sept that they were working on it ,
 

Chaos123x

macrumors 68000
Jul 8, 2008
1,698
34
Well seeing that the Mac Edition 3870 is rather new, and that Mac graphics cards are always a year behind. I would say not any time soon.

Unless they release it as a BTO option on the Nehalem Mac Pros, but it seems like Apple is in bed with Nvidia at the moment, even if their drivers suck for Core Image apps.
 

xgman

macrumors 603
Aug 6, 2007
5,671
1,378
There was a news blurb last month somewhere stating that ATI will make a mac ver, so maybe there is some hope.
 

grue

macrumors 65816
Nov 14, 2003
1,233
37
Somewhere.
The original "news" source didn't come from anywhere reputable. There's been nothing even close to official word.

I honestly think at this point that the best thing to do would be install a good PC-only card in the fastest PCIe slot, the Mac card in the next fastest, and get a DVI switch to use when you reboot. It'd probably be cheaper than when (IF) they ever release a Mac-friendly card.
 

AdiosVista

macrumors 6502
Sep 10, 2008
315
6
The new Mac Pros are very likely due out in January and I can guarantee they will have new video card options. Now whether or not those new cards will also be compatible with the current Mac Pro versions available today, who knows.
 

nanofrog

macrumors G4
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
The new Mac Pros are very likely due out in January and I can guarantee they will have new video card options. Now whether or not those new cards will also be compatible with the current Mac Pro versions available today, who knows.
I would think it would. :)

Firmware and/or driver updates may be necessary though.
 

digitalfrog

Suspended
Nov 26, 2007
244
0
...unless they choose a beefed up version of the macbook pro Nvidia chips and put them onboard .... and only offer high end options as traditional cards.
 

nanofrog

macrumors G4
May 6, 2008
11,719
3
...unless they choose a beefed up version of the macbook pro Nvidia chips and put them onboard .... and only offer high end options as traditional cards.
Possible, but likely difficult, assuming:

1. Apple sticks to the SSI CEB board format they currently use. Not much real estate available.
2. Managed to do this without using any of the PCIe 2.0 lanes. Unless disabling the on-board graphics returned the use of the lanes used to a slot that could be used by a different card.

At best, using 2 Tylersburg 36D chipsets (64 lanes usable for slots), four (4) PCIe 2.0 x16 slots are max possible. Only having 3 of these available wouldn't be the best idea.
 
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